Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July this year!  At the last minute, I decided that I wanted to go to the traditional Brighton parade.  We joined Lisa's family and Sandy's family.  The kids had a great time, like always, catching the candy.  After the parade, we spent a few hours visiting at the cabin.  It was so nice to be in the cool mountains with my family.  Later in the afternoon, we went to Lisa's house to go on the super duper slip-n-slide.  The kids had a blast!  I took a lot of fun pictures with Lisa's camera but I haven't been able to get them on my computer yet so I couldn't post them.  By the time we were all done with the slip-n-slide and dinner, we were too tired to go see any fireworks so we just went home.  We did get to see some fireworks on the way home.  We had a great day.  It was so much fun to spend the day together to celebrate the 4th of July!

Jadon at EFY

Jadon and Andrew waiting in line to check in

Yesterday Jadon got home from his week at EFY.  He went with his friend, Andrew to Utah State.  Dale and I took him up there on Monday morning.  It always brings back so many great memories when I go to Logan.  It was hard for me to leave him there.  I went to EFY when I was his age and LOVED it!  I wanted to be a kid again and stay there with him and have all the fun that I knew he was going to have.

I was so happy that he would text me every night and tell me some of the things that he did that day.  It's hard to write a post about something that I didn't get to particpate in.  He said he made a lot of new friends and his favorite thing about EFY were the dances.  We made him pay half of the money that it cost to go there.  He worked hard being an umpire for baseball games to get the money.  He told me it was worth it so that made me happy.  I'm glad that he could have such a wonderful  oppurtunity!


Jadon with his group (they call it a company) at EFY

All-star pre-tournament

Today was the last day of Jaxon's all-star pre-tournament.  It was so much fun!  I have to admit that his team did way better than I thought they would.  They lost their first game but won their next 3 which put them in the first seed.  They played this morning and won the game again.  Then they played for the championship this afternoon.  They played well but ended up losing by 3.  They took 2nd place.  They will now play in the championship next weekend!

It's hard to get good pictures of Jaxon at bat because the fence is always in my way.  His coaches kept making him bunt.  He did well but I wanted him to really have a good hard hit.

 If Jaxon wasn't pitching, he was playing first base.  He did great!  His head is always in the game.  He had an awesome play where he threw the ball from 1st to 3rd and got the runner out!  Jaxon is the closing pitcher.  He usually does great under pressure and most the time, the other team doesn't score any runs while he is the mound.  When he pitches, I am always too nervous to take pictures so I don't have any of him pitching.

Here's his team with their trophies.  Even though they didn't get first place, they were pretty excited!

Jaxon has some pretty great coaches.  They really care about the boys and spend a lot of time teaching them how to play baseball!

Field of Dreams

Last week we had the oppurtunity to go to a Bees game with Jaxon's Orioles team.  We went to the Field of Dreams.  It's a really neat experience.  The team gets to go on a tour of the players headquarters and then they get to go out on the field with the Bees player.  Each kid gets to go out and stand with the Bees player that plays their same position.

The Orioles went out on the field first and waited for the Bees players to join them.  It was pretty cool to see Jaxon out on the pitcher's mound on that huge field.  There was a baseball out there on the mound and I know he was dieing to pick it up and throw the first pitch.  It would be awesome if he got to play on a field like that someday!

When the pitcher came out to stand with Jaxon he talked to him for a minute and then they stood together while the National Anthem was sung.  It was pretty cool.  It was a perfect night for a baseball game.  Jadon came with us and we all had a great time!  Jaxon got on the jumbo tron and the Bees ended up winning by 1 in the 9th inning.

A Mother who's 40!

This week has been a really fun week for me!  It started out with Mother's Day.  My family is so good to me on Mother's Day.  They let me sleep in.  While I was sleeping, they made Kneader's French Toast for breakfast.  Everyone helped.  It was so yummy!  They gave me their cute Mother's Day cards and tried to get along while we got ready for church.  At church, the men gave the Mother's candy bars!!!  It was awesome!  I came home with 3 candy bars!  No silly flowers that I don't know where to plant because there is only one.

The French Toast waiting to be cooked

Daddy and Jadon making the French Toast

Me with my kids.  I love them so much!

 That night we brought dinner into my Mom and Dad.  We had a bar-b-q with Lisa's family.  It was so nice to hang out together in the backyard and laugh! 
     Yesterday I turned 40!!!!!!  Wow!  I can remember when my mom turned 40 and it doesn't seem that long ago.  I had a great day!  I started out the day with exercise, which I love.  Then I volunteered in Kyson's class.  When I got home, I read my book and took a nap.  That night my sweet family went out to dinner at Red Robin.  I have been wanting a good hamburger for a long time.  I enjoyed every bite!

We all LOVE to go out to dinner for birthdays!

Me and my crazy baseball player!

 After dinner, we all went to Jaxon's baseball game.  People thought I should be doing something different than going to a baseball game on my birthday.  I disagree.  I love watching my boys play baseball.  I asked Jaxon to get a great hit for my birthday present.  He delivered!  He played really well but had one awesome play.  We were losing 4 to 2.  He got up with two outs and the bases were loaded.  You can't get more pressure than that!  He swung at the first ball and missed.  He didn't swing at the 2nd ball, it was a strike!  Everyone was cheering him on and pumping him up as he was getting ready for the 3rd try.  He hit it!  He hit a double and brought two boys in, tieing the game.  We ended up losing by one but it was a really exciting game!

When we got home, we had my favorite cake.  Red velvet and chocolate chocolate chip from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Yummmmmmmmy!  My family is so sweet and spoil me on special days.  Kierra gave me some new measuring cups and spoons because she noticed that all the numbers on mine were coming off.  Jake and Kyson made me coupons that I can use for them to do nice things for me.  Jaxon bought me a cinnamon pretzel at his game.  I love cinnamon pretzels and never eat them anymore.  Jadon and Dale gave me a week of service.  They said for the next week, they will do whatever I want them to do, without complaining.  I have already started making my list.  I had a great day!  I don't have a problem turning 40.  I feel better than I have in a really long time and I'm happy.  What more could you ask for?

Race for the Cure 2012

The "Saving 2nd Base" team

Lisa and I trying to show off our shirts

Headed off to the starting line

Lisa caught a picture of me running

Woo hoo!  I finished!



Look how good we look after the race! :) Lisa had to leave so she's not in the picture but she did finish the race.

On Saturday, May 12, 2012, we ran in the Race for the Cure.  Last year a few of us went and I decided I wanted to have a team this year.  So I put it out on Facebook that I was forming a team called "Saving 2nd Base".  It ended up that we had a total of 11 people on our team.  Suzy helped me design our logo and we had some really cute shirts made.  After we got downtown, and everyone used the disgusting porta pottys, we got to the race right as it was starting.  I had decided that I wanted to try and run as much of the race as I could.  A few of us started off jogging right away.  It is such an amazing thing to be out there with thousands of people who are all supporting the same cause.  With the exception of one 10-15 second stop, I ran the whole race.  It felt so good!  I didn't think I would be able to do it.  The coolest thing about it was that I came in 2nd place for our team. It was so much fun to stand at the finish line and watch all my friends come in.  It was such a great way to start the day.  I hope I can get more people to join our team next year.

No more tonsils!



 A little while ago I decided to take Jake to the doctor because he always snores really loud and he's been really tired.  The ENT said that he had very large tonsils and adnoids and recommended that we take them out.  I decided we better do it now because I've heard so many people say that the recovery is worse the older you get.  Jake's only concern with this surgery was how the the doctors would be able to wake him up if they gave him medicine to make him fall asleep.  He had a really hard time waking up after surgery.  I even tickled him and he didn't flinch.  He slept all the way home and then was awake the rest of the day. The doctor told us he would be be pretty groggy for the next day and then on day 3 he would probably be in a lot of pain for a few days. Well that didn't happen.  He acted normal and didn't complain at all.  I explained the pain rating scale and kept asking what his pain level was.  He never said it was above a 2.  He acted completely normal for the first 6 days.  I was excited because I thought he was only going to miss a week of school and we were going to sail through this thing.  Boy was I wrong.  Day 7 hit and he was a completely different kid.  He cried all day because his throught hurt really bad.  The doctors said day 10 would be really bad because the scabs would be falling off.  I'm guessing that his scabs started falling off on day 7 because of the drastic change in his mood.  We had to keep the TV on all day because if he was distracted by the TV, he didn't cry quite as much.  The pain lasted for 3 or 4 days and then he started feeling better.  When I brought up the idea of going back to school, he started crying and saying he was still sick.  Once he made it through the night without asking for any medication and he wasn't asking for any medicataion during the day, I decided it was time to go back.  Exactly two weeks after his surgery, I had to force him to go back to school. He was crying and telling me that he wasn't going. It was a friday so I told him the day won't be as long.  I also told him he wouldn't be able to go swimming at Crystal Hot Springs if he didn't go to school.  That did the trick.  He reluctantly left for the bus stop.  After he made it through the day of school, he was fine.  No more medicine.  No more ice packs.  No more complaining.  Eating all foods.  Back to playing with Kyson.  Jake was back!

One of the first things he ate, was chocolate pudding.  When I saw him, I thought he threw up.  He must have still been a little numb while he was eating it.

Jake and Jaxon playing video games

Poor kid!  The pain finally hit hard on day 7!

Finally some relief!

All better and going back to school